View full sizeMarvin Fong, The Plain DealerMatthew Katz, a biology student at Cleveland State University, smokes outside the student center on Monday. The Ohio Board of Regents voted to ban indoor and outdoor smoking at college campuses in the state of Ohio.

COLUMBUS, Ohio –All tobacco products should be prohibited on public two- and four-year campuses, members of the Ohio Board of Regents said Monday as they unanimously approved a resolution asking each college's board of trustees to impose such a ban.

"It's a direction we need to take," said Chancellor Jim Petro.

Petro and the regents said they hope that colleges will heed their concerns about the detrimental effects of tobacco on the health of employees and students.

Although that is not part of the resolution approved Monday, Roizen said refusing to hire smokers at collegeswould likely lead to a decrease in smokers across the state, just as the Clinic's 2007 hiringban led to a decrease in smoking in Cuyahoga County.

Miami University is the only public university in Ohio that now bans smoking on campus. The University of Toledo bans all tobacco products but allows their use in seven huts around campus and in personal vehicles. Several private colleges in the state have smoke-free campuses.

Each college'sboard of trustees would have to create and adopt a policy on tobacco use.Petro said regents may attend thosemeetings to convince trustees to go forward.

Regent Patricia Ackerman, of Cleveland, suggested that universities and community colleges develop policies in conjunction with their state associations, the Inter-University Council and the Ohio Association of Community Colleges, and then impose them on the same date.

That would eliminate any concerns about losing enrollment to a competing institution, she said.

"I smoked my first cigarette at 14 and when I went to college I viewed it as a true act of liberation and my first official act of freedom when I purchased a pack of cigarettes," Ackermansaid. "I smoked for 36 years and on October 1, 1994 I smoked my last cigarette."

Robert Rawson, chairman of Cleveland State University's board, said Monday thatit was too early to comment on the regents' resolutionbecause there have been no discussionsamong trustees, said CSU spokesman Rob Spademan.

Initially the regents discussed urging the state's 23 community colleges and 14 universities colleges to go smoke-free, but ultimately decided to approve the resolution that recommends banning all tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco.

Regents Chairman James Tuschman, other regents and Petro were influenced by a plea from Dr. Toby Cosgrove, chief executive of the Clinic, who spoke at the regents' May 22 meeting at Lorain County Community College.

View full sizeMarvin Fong, The Plain DealerAn ashtray of cigarettes is seen near the Cleveland State University student center on Monday. The Ohio Board of Regents approved a plan to rid two- and four-year public campuses of all tobacco products.

"Universities take a great deal of thought, time and expense to educate the brain," Cosgrove said at that meeting. "You have to think about educating the bodies."

On Monday, Cosgrove, who has gained national attention over the Clinic's no-smoking policies, called the regents' vote "a tremendous step forward and an enlightened move."

Cosgrove said he is willing to speak to boards of trustees about the need for a tobacco-free policy, which would educate students about taking care of themselves.

"You go to college to learn how to live. This is part of it," he said.

Asked about the likelihood that banning tobacco on campus will simply drive students off campus to smoke, Cosgrove said, "I don't think you can stop college students from going off campus to smoke, but [a tobacco-free policy] sends a signal that this is something frowned upon by the university."

Most adult smokers begin smoking before age 26 and nationally more than 3,800 boys and girls under the age of 18 smoke their first cigaretteeach day, Dr. Theodore Wymyslo, director of the Ohio Board of Health, told the regents Monday.

"The higher education environment has a huge impact [on people beginning to smoke]," he said. "We need to make the environment of education focus on health and wellness."

National studies have shown that enrollment is not affected at universities that ban tobacco products and compliance is high, said Mari-jean Siehl, chief of the tobacco use prevention and control program of the health board. Nationally, about 700 campuses are smoke-free, according to Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights in Berkeley, Calif.Arkansas, Iowa and Oklahoma have banned smoking on all state college campuses.

Roizen made several suggestions to help colleges enact anti-tobacco policies, including offering free smoking-cessation programs, involving students in promoting the policies and making sure that violations of the policies carry specific consequences.

Many colleges in Ohio banned smoking in buildings even before a state law went into effect in 2007 that restricts smoking inside most public places and workplaces.

But students, staff and employees on most campuses can light up as they cross college greens and socialize away from buildings.

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.